Smadj

Tunisian born, Parisian musician ,Jean-Pierre Smadja (Smadj) grew up listening to Oriental, Brazilian, funk, soul, and folk music. Entering a jazz school at the age of 15 due to his intense interest in the guitar, Smadj’s musical development came to be characterized by transforming traditional jazz styles into eclectic sounds. This interest in the mechanics of making music led Smadj to pursue a degree in sound engineering, which led to a fruitful career as a recording & sound engineer for famous classical and folk musicians. Releasing his first album in 1994, it wasnt until 2000 that Smadj became recognized on an international scale for his signature blending of acoustic and electronic sounds on Equilibriste, which would ascend on the European World Music Charts to the number 4 position. In 2002, Smadj joined fellow ud magician, French musician Mehdi Haddab, for a special project that would transport the oud to the 21st century in DuOuD. Supporting their triumph of an album with a 2 year world tour, the album also received 2nd place in the Best Album category at the prestigious BBC World Music Awards. In 2003, Smadj joined master percussionist Burhan Öçal for « Burhan Öçal & The Trakya All Stars featuring Smadj », the album and the tour was a huge success in Turkey and everywhere and the album is considered as a classic now.In 2004 Smadj released his 3rd album with an English record label Most , his most electronics and more lounge album which involved Talvin Singh , Amit Chatterjee, Rokia Traoré, Mehdi Haddab and Dom Farkas.